Traditional gaming apparatuses or units (including lottery apparatuses) are utilized in a variety of ways, including individual gaming units, components of a gaming system having a plurality of gaming units, or a network-based system (e.g., a LAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Network), an intranet, or the Internet) having a plurality of gaming apparatuses.
These conventional gaming apparatuses are often equipped with card readers to allow players to use a wide variety of cards to play games found on the gaming apparatuses instead of using coins, bills, chips, etc. These cards may also be player tracking cards which store and track personal and gaming information about players. In conventional applications, these player tracking cards are compatible with only one brand of gaming apparatuses. Additionally, the player tracking cards are often unique for each facility and cannot be used in multiple facilities.
It is also known in the prior art that progressive gaming systems may be provided that have a plurality of individual gaming units operatively linked together to allow the generation of a relatively large, community wide, progressive jackpot that may be won by one of the players using one of the individual gaming units in the progressive system. In these progressive systems, a nominal amount of each player""s wager is contributed to the community progressive jackpot until one of the many players wins a top qualifying game.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a gaming apparatus is provided. The gaming apparatus comprises a display unit that is capable of generating video images, a value input device, a player tracking card reader, and a controller. The controller is operatively coupled to the display unit, the value input device, and the player tracking card reader. The controller may comprise a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor. The controller may be programmed to allow a person to make a wager. The controller may be further programmed to cause a video image to be generated on the display unit. The video image may represent a game selected from the group of games consisting of video poker, video blackjack, video slots, video keno and video bingo. The video image may comprise an image of at least five playing cards if the game comprises video poker. The video image may comprise an image of a plurality of simulated slot machine reels if the game comprises video slots. If the game comprises video blackjack, the video image may comprise an image of a plurality of playing cards. Also, the video image may comprise an image of a plurality of keno numbers if the game comprises video keno, and the video image may comprise an image of a bingo grid if the game comprises video bingo.
In addition, the controller may be programmed to read a player tracking card, acquire player tracking data from a player tracking database, and determine if a player is a personal wide area progressive member. Still further, the controller may be programmed to evaluate an outcome of the game represented by the video image. In addition, the controller may be programmed to determine if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. The controller may also be programmed to increment a credit account for the player by a personal wide area progressive jackpot total if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. Additionally, the controller may be programmed to reset the personal wide area progressive jackpot total if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. Also, the controller may be programmed to increment the credit account for the player by a contribution amount if the outcome of the game was not a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. The controller for the gaming apparatus may also be programmed to prompt the user to become a personal wide area progressive member if it is determined that the player was not currently a personal wide area progressive member. Also, the player tracking database may comprise a remote, central database, or a local, satellite database that is periodically updated by a remote, central database. As for the contribution amount, it may comprise either a percentage of a player""s wager, or a predetermined amount less than one dollar.
The gaming apparatus"" controller may also be further programmed to lock the gaming apparatus and perform a jackpot verification if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. The controller may also be programmed to reset the personal wide area progressive jackpot total to an amount correlating to the player""s gaming history if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. Additionally, the controller may be further programmed to generate a player status video image representing current player tracking data. For example, the controller may display the player""s current jackpot balance.
A plurality of these gaming apparatuses may be interconnected to form a network of gaming apparatuses, wherein the gaming apparatuses are located in a plurality of facilities with each of the gaming apparatuses having access to the player tracking database.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, a gaming apparatus comprising a display unit that is capable of generating video images, a value input device, and a player tracking card reader, may be provided. The gaming apparatus may also include a controller that is operatively coupled to the display unit, the value input device, and the player tracking card reader. The controller may comprise a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor. The controller may be programmed to allow a person to make a wager. Also, the controller may be programmed to cause a video image to be generated on the display unit, wherein the video image represents a game. In addition, the controller may be programmed to read a player tracking card, acquire player tracking data from a player tracking database, and determine if a player is a personal wide area progressive member.
The controller may also be programmed to evaluate an outcome of the game represented by the video image, and to determine if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. Additionally, the controller may be programmed to increment a credit account for the player by a personal wide area progressive jackpot total and to reset the personal wide area progressive jackpot total to an amount correlating to said player""s gaming history, if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. Also, the controller may be programmed to increment the credit account for the player by a contribution amount if the outcome of the game was not a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win.
In accordance with a third aspect of the invention, a gaming apparatus is provided comprising a display unit that is capable of generating video images, a value input device, and a player tracking card reader. The gaming apparatus may also include a controller that is operatively coupled to the display unit, the value input device, and the player tracking card reader. The controller may also comprise a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor. The controller may be programmed to allow a person to make a wager and to make a payline selection. In addition, the controller may be programed to cause a video image to be generated on the display unit wherein the video image may comprise a plurality of simulated slot machine reels of a slots game. The slot machine reels may have a plurality of slot machine symbols. Additionally, the controller may be programmed to read a player tracking card, acquire player tracking data from a player tracking database, and determine if a player is a personal wide area progressive member. In addition, the controller may be programmed to determine the value pay out associated with an outcome of the slots game, based on a configuration of the slot machine symbols.
The controller associated with the gaming apparatus may also be programmed to determine if the outcome of the slots game was qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. If the outcome of the slots game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win, then the controller may also be programmed to increment a credit account for the player by personal wide area progressive jackpot total and to reset the personal wide area progressive jackpot total to an amount correlating to said player""s gaming history. If the outcome of the slots game was not a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win, then the controller may be programmed to add a percentage of a monetary value of said wager to a current monetary value of said personal wide area progressive jackpot.
In accordance with a fourth aspect of the invention, a gaming method may be provided. The gaming method may comprise causing a video image to be generated, wherein the video image represents a game selected from the group of games consisting of video poker, video blackjack, video slots, video keno, and video bingo. The video image may comprise an image of at least five playing cards if the game comprises video poker. Also, the video image may comprise an image of a plurality of simulated slot machine reels if the game comprises video slots. Similarly, the video image may comprise an image of a plurality of playing cards if the game comprises video blackjack. The video image may also comprise an image of a plurality of keno numbers if the game comprises video keno. Also, the video image may comprise an image of a bingo grid if the game comprises video bingo.
The gaming method may also comprise reading a player tracking card and acquiring player tracking data from a player tracking data base. In addition, the gaming method may comprise determining if a player is a personal wide area progressive member that is eligible to win a personal wide area progressive jackpot. The gaming method may further comprise evaluating an outcome of the game represented by the video image as well as determining if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot winner. Additionally, the gaming method may include incrementing a credit account for the player by a personal wide area progressive jackpot total if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. Additionally, the gaming method may include resetting the personal wide area progressive jackpot total if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win, and incrementing the credit account by a contribution amount if the outcome of the game was not a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win.
In accordance with a fifth aspect of the invention, a memory may be provided, wherein the memory has a computer program stored therein that is capable of being used in connection with a gaming apparatus. The memory may comprise a first memory portion physically configured in accordance with computer program instructions that would cause the gaming apparatus to allow a person to make a wager. Additionally, the memory may include a second memory portion physically configured in accordance with computer program instructions that would cause the gaming apparatus to cause a video image to be generated on a display unit, wherein the video image would represent a game selected from the group of games consisting of video poker, video blackjack, video slots, video keno, and video bingo. A third memory portion may also be included in the memory that is physically configured in accordance with computer program instructions that would cause the gaming apparatus to read a player tracking card, acquire player tracking data from a player tracking database, and determine if a player is a personal wide area progressive member.
The memory may also comprise a fifth memory portion physically configured in accordance with computer program instructions that would cause a gaming apparatus to determine if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. The memory may also comprise a sixth and a seventh memory portion that are physically configured in accordance with computer program instructions that would cause the gaming apparatus to increment a credit account for the player by personal wide area progressive jackpot total and to reset the personal wide area progressive jackpot total to an amount correlating to said player""s gaming history, if the outcome of the game was a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win. Additionally, the memory may comprise an eighth memory portion physically configured in accordance with computer program instructions that would cause the gaming apparatus to increment the credit account for the player by a contribution amount if the outcome of the game was not a qualified personal wide area progressive jackpot win.
The features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the detailed description of various embodiments, which is made with reference to the drawings, a brief description of which is provided below.